The ability to live exclusively in mangrove habitats evolved at least 15 times within the angiosperms. For many of those lineages it is not clear which are their closest living relatives, when they split from their terrestrial relatives, and how they obtained their present distribution. We conducted a molecular phylogenetic analysis of the family Rhizophoraceae to address these issues. Rhizophoraceae comprises 15 genera and approximately 140 species of which four genera and about 17 species are mangroves. In order to construct a well supported phylogeny we used seven data sets from three sources, cpDNA (rbcL, trnL-trnF and atpB-rbcL intergenic spacers), nuclear ribosomal DNA (ITS1, 5.8S, ITS2) and morphology. For calibrating the molecular data we used fossil information as well as tectonic vicariance events. We propose the following evolutionary scenario which is concordant with all the data available: 1. The monophyletic mangrove lineage most likely evolved from their terrestrial sister taxon (ancestor of all Gynotrocheae) at least 60 my ago on the shores of East Gondwana. 2. The mangrove Rhizophoraceae moved most likely north and eastwards through the open Tethys Sea reaching the New world at least 40 my ago. 3. All four genera (Kandelia, Bruguiera, Ceriops and Rhizophora) underwent a severe extinction phase in the upper Tertiary, probably after closure of the Tethys Seaway, restricting them to the Indo-West-Pacific region. 4. The genus Rhizophora only was re-introduced to the New World at least 11 my ago.

Key words: biogeography, extinction, mangrove, Rhizophoraceae